Rob, you are far from alone. After many, many years in the business, I think I am correct that turb is the most feared experience by pax in the air. It is because they do not understand it (a bit like my wife and me).
As someone has posted, most turb can be avoided with the use of radar. However, there is stuff called clear-air turb which the radar cannot see and that sometimes gets us by surprise. If people are waltzing around the cabin when it strikes, some might get hurt. Mostly, the seat-belt sign will be on and everyone is tied down. That's part of the problem: you are tied down in a tube and can't see what's going on. Scary. Never mind, the aircraft (as written above) doesn't care and it will not fall to bits. If you are ever in one that does fall to bits, you can sue me.
It's not turb that will kill you; fags and booze are much more likely to.